Season 20: Episode 05: Knights of the Round Table

The tribe has spoken and Nick is asked to leave th pool immediately.

At Tribal Council, host Jeff Probst points out the obvious fact that James presents a huge liability to his tribe due to his injury.  His tribemates stand up for James with the exception of Tom, Colby and Candice, who contend that he is only being kept for a loyal vote for his allies.  James accuses Tom of being the sole reason why their tribe continues to lose challenges, and proclaims that he is much stronger with a bum knee than Tom is without any ailments.  With this, the Heroes cast their votes, and with five out of the seven votes cast against him, Tom was voted out.  Tom Westman, the 45 year-old from Survivor: Palau became the fifth person voted out of SURVIVOR: HEROES VS. VILLAINS.

Quote of the week is the exchange between Russell and Parvati:

Russell: Just grab onto my coattails.

Parvati: I don’t ride coattails, baby.

Russell: You’ll ride these.

Upcoming Survivor programming: 

• Thursday, March 18: Due to the NCAA college basketball tournament, SURVIVOR WILL NOT BE ON 
• Wednesday, March 24: Survivor will be on for a special Wednesday night episode   
• Thursday, April 1: Survivor will return to it's regular time slot

Insight from Jeff Probst about the Reward challenge – SCHMERGENBRAWL

This is a challenge that was created by our grip department.  These are the guys who build the scaffolding that makes it possible for us to shoot out in the water or put cameras high in the air.  These guys are hard working and keep us all safe.

During a day off they created a simple game they named Schmergenbrawl.  It evolved into a major day-long tournament where our crew divided into teams.  They had T-shirts made and some even had their own mascots.  It was full-on.  The game was so popular with our crew that our challenge department stole the idea and with a few modifications turned it into a Survivor challenge that we premiered in Survivor: Samoa.

You may remember it as the challenge that resulted in me tossing somebody (Ben) out of the challenge for unsportsmanlike behavior and also resulted in the evacuation of Mike Borassi due to dehydration.  We should have known that it was too rough, even for Survivor.

But instead, we brought it back again this season. Once again it was physical and once again it resulted in a major injury as James was removed from the challenge after wrecking his knee.

This challenge will NEVER be played again.  It was officially retired after last night’s challenge and those of you who love justice being served will be happy to know that the grip that created the challenge was fired.

He wasn’t really fired.  He was sacrificed.  It turns out the Samoans have an ancient ritual that saved our season from becoming a disaster.  We gave him over to the Samoan gods to do with him as they must and in exchange they were able to bless us and insure us a very good finish to our 20^th season.  A small price to pay if you ask me.

One grip in exchange for a really good season of Survivor.  We’ll make that deal every year.  Plus, one of the younger guys in the grip department got to move up and take his spot.  That’s what you call a “win-win.”

Heroes				Villains
Amanda	~	Warren		Coach	~	Dick
Candice	~	Maureen		Courtney	~	Eric
Cirie	~	Karen D.		Danielle	~	Pat
Colby	~	Christi		Jerri	~	Lauren
J.T.	~	Erin		Parvati	~	Cara
James	~	Karen R.		Randy	~	Sandy
Rupert	~	Brendan		Rob	~	Tonya
Stephanie	~	Colin		Russell	~	Kim
Sugar	~	Cheryl		Sandra	~	Linda
Tom	~	Nick		Tyson	~	Brandon